System and method for shear wave elastography by transmitting ultrasound with subgroups of ultrasound transducer elements

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for performing shear wave elastography using push and/or detection ultrasound beams that are generated by subsets of the available number of transducer elements in an ultrasound transducer. These techniques provide several advantages over currently available approaches to shear wave elastography, including the ability to use a standard, low frame rate ultrasound imaging system and the ability to measure shear wave speed throughout the entire field-of-view rather than only those regions where the push beams are not generated.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/397,395 filed Oct. 27, 2014, which is the US National Phase ofPCT/US13/63631 filed Oct. 7, 2013, which claims priority to U.S. PatentApplication 61/710,744 filed Oct. 7, 2012, the entirety of all of whichare incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

This invention was made with government support under EB002167 andDK082408 awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The governmenthas certain rights in the invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention is systems and methods for ultrasoundimaging. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methodsfor shear wave elastography using ultrasound.

Shear waves can be used to evaluate the viscoelastic properties oftissue, which are sensitive biomarkers of tissue pathology. To performtwo-dimensional ultrasound shear wave elastography, an ultrasoundimaging system with a frame rate of several kilohertz is required tocapture the fast moving shear waves. This is not feasible withconventional ultrasound imaging systems, which typically have a framerate of less than 100 Hz and where two-dimensional images are formedline by line. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a system and methodcapable of performing two-dimensional shear wave elastography with aconventional ultrasound imaging system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks byproviding a method for measuring a mechanical property of an objectusing an ultrasound system having an ultrasound transducer that includesa plurality of transducer elements. At least one shear wave is inducedin the object, and elastography data is obtained from the object. Theelastography data is obtained by dividing the transducer elements in theultrasound transducer into a plurality of subgroups of transducerelements; successively transmitting a set of ultrasound beams using adifferent subgroup of transducer elements, thereby successivelytransmitting ultrasound to different regions in the object; andrepeating that process at a pulse repetition frequency such that eachset of ultrasound beams is effectively repeated at the pulse repetitionfrequency. From the obtained elastography data, a mechanical property ofthe object can then be calculated.

It is another aspect of the invention to provide a method for measuringa mechanical property of an object using an ultrasound system having anultrasound transducer that includes a plurality of transducer elements.At least one shear wave is induced in the object by dividing thetransducer elements in the ultrasound transducer into a plurality ofsubgroups of transducer elements and transmitting a plurality of focusedultrasound beams, each focused ultrasound beam being transmitted by asingle subgroup of transducer elements. Elastography data is obtainedfrom the object by transmitting a detection ultrasound beam into theobject and receiving echo signals in response thereto. A mechanicalproperty of the object can then be calculated using the obtainedelastography data.

The foregoing and other aspects and advantages of the invention willappear from the following description. In the description, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in whichthere is shown by way of illustration a preferred embodiment of theinvention. Such embodiment does not necessarily represent the full scopeof the invention, however, and reference is made therefore to the claimsand herein for interpreting the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a plurality of ultrasound beam sets, eachcontaining a plurality of ultrasound beams, being transmitted by anultrasound transducer;

FIG. 2 is an example of a pulse timing diagram using the plurality ofultrasound beam sets of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an example of aligning the time grids of different ultrasoundbeam sets using interpolation;

FIG. 4 is an example of a delay time in a shear wave front;

FIG. 5 is an example of another delay time in a shear wave front;

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a plurality of focused ultrasound pushbeams being simultaneously transmitted in a comb pattern;

FIG. 7 is an illustration of a focused ultrasound push beam that israpidly translated along a lateral direction to generate shear waves;and

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a plurality of focused ultrasound pushbeams being simultaneously transmitted, in which each of the ultrasoundpush beams is generated with different sized subgroups of transducerelements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Described here are systems and methods for performing shear waveelastography using push and/or detection ultrasound beams that aregenerated by subsets of the available number of transducer elements inan ultrasound transducer. These techniques provide several advantagesover currently available approaches to shear wave elastography,including the ability to use a standard, low frame rate ultrasoundimaging system and the ability to measure shear wave speed throughoutthe entire field-of-view rather than only those regions where the pushbeams are not generated.

High-end, conventional ultrasound imaging systems can image severallines from a single transmission using parallel beam forming. The pulserepetition frequency (“PRF”) and pulse repetition interval (“PRI”) forultrasound imaging are determined by the maximum depth of the image.Assuming an imaging depth of 30 mm, the round-trip ultrasound traveltime is

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{2 \cdot {30\lbrack{mm}\rbrack}}{1.54\left\lbrack \frac{mm}{µs} \right\rbrack} = {{39\lbrack{µs}\rbrack}.}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

Adding beam forming and other overhead time delay, a PRI of 50 μs(PRF=20 kHz) is feasible. The inventors have discovered that fortwo-dimensional shear wave elastography, the detection PRF at eachspatial location can be less than 1 kHz. That is to say, using 1 kHz asan example, it is sufficient to perform shear wave elastographydetection at the same spatial location only once every 1000microseconds. Therefore, shear wave elastography can be performed usingparallel beam forming detection at multiple locations sequentially whilemaintaining a PRF of 1 kHz at each location.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an example of a sequence of ultrasound beamsgenerated by an ultrasound system to produce a desired PRF at eachspatial location is illustrated. For example, the sequence of ultrasoundbeams includes N sets, S₁, K, S_(N) 102 each of M beams, B₁, K, B_(M)104 formed in parallel. This sequence is then repeated at the pulserepetition frequency for a number, P, of desired repetitions.

By way of example, each set, S_(n), of ultrasound beams may include aplurality of beams, B_(m), that are formed in parallel. For example,each set of ultrasound beams may include four beams formed in paralleland twenty beam sets may be used for a total sampling of eightydifferent locations during each pulse sequence. Using this approach,shear wave motion can be detected within a two-dimensional regioncovered by the M·N spatial locations with an effective PRF of 1 kHz ateach spatial location. Assuming a line spacing of 0.3 mm, which istypical for a 5 MHz linear array ultrasound transducer, two-dimensionalshear wave elastography can be performed within an area that is 30 mmdeep and 24 mm wide using this technique. In other implementations, eachset of ultrasound beams may include only a single ultrasound beam. As aresult, the region-of-interest in which mechanical properties can bemeasured will be smaller than with parallel beam forming.

An example pulse sequence timing for P repetitions of the pulse sequenceillustrated in FIG. 1 is illustrated in FIG. 2. At time t=0 μs,transmission of beam set S_(1,1) is used to track shear wave motion atbeam locations defined by the beams, B_(m), that form beam set S_(1,1).For example, when beam set S_(1,1) is composed of four beams, shear wavemotion at four locations will be tracked. At a preset time after beamset S_(1,1) is generated, beam set S_(2,1) is generated to detect shearwave motion occurring at beam locations defined by the beams, B_(m),that form beam set S_(2,1). For example, the preset time may be 50microseconds. In the next cycle of the transmission, the first beam setis again transmitted. This beam set, S_(1,2), is therefore transmittedat time t=1000 μs for a PRF of 1 kHz. The pulse sequence is repeateduntil the P^(th) repetition is performed at time t=P·1000 μs.

The size of the two-dimensional shear wave elastography region isdetermined by the parallel beam forming capability of the ultrasoundsystem and the required PRF at each spatial location. For example,six-beam parallel detection can allow a 36 mm image width if everythingelse does not change. It is contemplated that the required PRF may behigher in stiffer tissues. In this instance, the two-dimensional shearwave elastography region will be reduced in size in order to sustain thehigher PRF. Therefore, implementations on traditional imagers may end upwith a region-of-interest whose size changes with differentapplications. This result is similar to current two-dimensional colorimaging methods in ultrasound scanners.

It is noted that although the descriptions provided above are made withrespect to a one-dimensional array transducer, the concepts are alsoreadily applicable to transducers with higher dimension, such as atwo-dimensional array transducers.

It is noted that even though the PRF at each location is 1 kHz,different locations are sampled at different time grids. Referring toFIG. 2, the four beam locations in beam sets S_(1,p) are sampled attimest=0,1000,2000,K,P·1000 μs.

The beams in beam sets S_(2,p) are sampled at times,t=50,1050,2050,K,(P·1000)+50 μs.

This small time delay among locations needs to be accounted for in shearwave elastography reconstruction. Two example methods for accounting forthis delay time are provided below.

One example method for compensating for the delay time noted above is tointerpolate the time signal at each location from PRF to N·PRF (e.g.,from 1 kHz to 20 kHz) and to use the same time grid for all locations.As shown in FIG. 3, the squares represent the time instances ofultrasound detection at locations covered by beam sets S₁ to S_(N). Eachbeam is sampled at a PRF of 1 kHz, but there is a time shift of 50 μsbetween adjacent beams. With interpolation back to 20 kHz for each beam,the time grids for each beam are aligned and synchronized. Theinterpolated points are represented by filled circles in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 4, the triangular waves in (a) and (b) represent theshear wave signals detected at two locations x and y after interpolationsuch that both signals start at the same time. Direction x→y is thedirection of shear wave propagation. The time delay, Δt, of the shearwave between (a) and (b) can be calculated using time-to-peak,cross-correlation, or other methods. The shear wave speed can thereforebe calculated by

$\begin{matrix}{{c_{s} = \frac{{y - x}}{\Delta\; t}};} & (2)\end{matrix}$

where |y−x| is the distance between location y and location x.

An example of another method for compensating for the delay time notedabove is to account for the delay time when calculating the shear wavespeed. Referring to FIG. 5, the triangular waves in (a) and (b)represent the shear wave signals detected at two locations, x and y,where the direction x→y is the direction of shear wave propagation. Thetime delay, Δt, of the shear wave between (a) and (b) can be calculatedusing time-to-peak, cross-correlation, or other methods. As explainedabove, the shear wave at different locations are detected at differenttime grids. Assuming that shear wave detection at location x starts attime t=0 as shown in (a), and shear wave detection at location y startsat time t=δ as shown in (b), the actual delay, ΔT, between the shearwave at locations x and y isΔT=(Δt+δ)  (3).

By way of example, if x is located at one of the beams in beam set S₁,and y is located at one of the beams in beam set S₃, thenδ=(3−1)·Δt=2·50=100 μs  (4).

The shear wave speed, c_(s), can then be calculated by

$\begin{matrix}{{c_{s} = \frac{{y - x}}{\Delta\; T}};} & (5)\end{matrix}$

where |y−x| is again the distance between location y and location x.

It is noted that tracking beam sets S₁, K, S_(N) do not need to be in aspatially sequential order; instead, the tracking beam sets can beplaced in different spatial orders. For example, tracking beams set S₁can be placed on left end of the image, whereas tracking beam set S₂ canbe placed at right end of the image, with odd-numbered beam setsfollowing sequentially inward to the center of the image from beam setS₁ and even-numbered beam sets following sequentially inward to thecenter of the image from beam set S₂.

In addition, two or more beam sets can be transmitted simultaneously toreduce the number of transmit-detection events required to cover atwo-dimensional region of desired size. This approach has the benefit ofincreasing the effective PRF of detection at each beam set location. Forexample, beam sets S₁ and S₁₀ can be transmitted and detectedsimultaneously, followed by beam sets S₂ and S₁₁ simultaneously, untilall N beam sets are covered. This process can repeat again in time.

It is also noted that each of the beam sets will be transmitted by agroup of transducer elements. Different beam sets may have same ordifferent transducer elements. For example, in a linear array or curvedarray ultrasound transducer, elements 1 through 32 may be used for beamset S₁, and elements 8 through element 40 may be used for beam set S₂,and so on. In another example of a phase array transducer with 64elements, the same 64 elements may be used to transmit all beam setsfrom S₁ to S_(N) by steering different beam sets to cover differentregions.

The above teaching is for calculating the shear wave speed by measuringthe time delay between shear waves detected at two or more locationsalong the shear wave propagation direction. The same concept can beapplied for other methods of shear wave elasticity imaging, such asdirect inversion and frequency dependent dispersion analysis. Inaddition, this method can be applied to shear waves produced byphysiological motion, such as cardiac motion; mechanical vibration; andultrasound radiation forces from single focused beams, single unfocusedbeams, multiple focused beams, or multiple unfocused beams.

Having described applications for transmitting ultrasound detectionbeams using subsets of the available transducer elements in anultrasound transducer, techniques for using subsets of transducerelements to deliver ultrasound push beams are now discussed.

When an ultrasound push beam is transmitted into an object, shear wavesare generated and propagate outward from the push beam in oppositedirections. Consequently, shear waves are not generated in the push beamregion, which means that shear wave speeds cannot be measured in theregion where the push beam is generated. In addition, shear wavesproduced by an ultrasound push beam attenuate quickly over a shortpropagation distance. As a result, shear waves produced by a single pushbeam can only image a small region-of-interest; thus, in theseinstances, multiple push-detect acquisitions are required to piecetogether an image with large field-of-view (“FOV”).

As described in co-pending PCT Application Publication WO2012/116364,entitled “Ultrasound Vibrometry with Unfocused Ultrasound,” which isherein incorporated by reference in its entirety, a comb-shaped set ofunfocused ultrasound beams can be used to provide a full FOV,two-dimensional shear wave speed map together with one rapid dataacquisition. This method is referred to as comb-push ultrasound shearelastography (“CUSE”).

In CUSE, multiple unfocused ultrasound push beams are used to produceshear waves within a tissue for shear wave elasticity imaging. Only onesubset of transducer elements is used for each push beam; thus, multiplesubsets of elements can be used for different spatial locations tosimultaneously transmit multiple push beams. In CUSE, shear wavesproduced by each push beam can be treated as an independent realizationof a single push beam.

Using CUSE, shear waves from different push beams interfere with eachother and eventually fill the entire field-of-view (“FOV”). To achieverobust shear wave speed estimation, a directional filter can be used toextract left-to-right (“LR”) propagating shear waves and right-to-left(“RL”) propagating shear waves from the interfering shear wave patterns.A time-of-flight based shear wave speed estimate method may be used torecover local shear wave speed at each pixel from both LR waves and RLwaves. A final shear wave speed map may then be combined from the LRspeed map and RL speed map. Because comb-push pulses produce shear wavemotions with high amplitude at all image pixels, including at the pushbeam areas, both shear wave speed at the “source free” areas and shearwave speeds at the push beam areas can be recovered.

Thus, CUSE enables a full FOV two-dimensional reconstruction of a shearelasticity map with only one data acquisition. To improve acousticradiation force penetration and generate stronger shear waves intodeeper tissue (i.e., liver and kidney), the previous CUSE method can bemodified using focused ultrasound push beams. Using focused ultrasoundpush beams facilitates the generation of strong shear waves at locationsdeep within tissues. This ability to generate strong shear waves at deeptissue locations can lead to higher SNR for shear wave elasticityimaging compared to CUSE with unfocused beams.

In one configuration, illustrated in FIG. 6, the transducer elements aredivided into a number of subgroups, such as four subgroups, that eachsimultaneously transmits a focused ultrasound beam. This technique isreferred to as focused CUSE, or “F-CUSE.” As noted, in F-CUSE, thetransducer elements are divided into a number, N, of subgroups, witheach subgroup containing one or more transducer elements.

As one example of the F-CUSE technique, a 128 element ultrasoundtransducer can be divided into four subgroups of 32 transducer elementseach. In F-CUSE, all subgroups transmit focused ultrasound beamssimultaneously to form a comb-push pattern ultrasound field. In oneexample, the duration of the push pulse beams can be on the order of 600μs.

In another configuration, the transducer elements are divided into anumber of subgroups with overlapping elements, and the subgroup that isused to transmit an ultrasound beam is rapidly changed along the lateraldirection. The result of this “marching” of the subgroup of transducerelements being energized is to provide a focused ultrasound push beam atsuccessively different horizontal locations. This technique may bereferred to as marching CUSE, or “M-CUSE.”

As one example of the M-CUSE technique, shown in FIG. 7, a 128 elementultrasound transducer can be divided into four, overlapping subgroups of64 elements each. The first subgroup then transmits a single, focusedpush beam at a first time, t1. The duration of this push beam can beshorter than would be used in F-CUSE or traditional CUSE if it isdesirable to control tissue or transducer heating due to repeatedtransmission using the overlapping transducer elements. As an example,the push beam duration in M-CUSE can be on the order of 200 μs. The pushbeam duration is selected based on considerations for how much overlapthere is between subgroups of the transducer elements. For instance, theduration can be selected such that any given transducer element inoverlapping subgroups is not energized for a consecutive duration thatmay lead to overheating in that element.

After the first push beam is transmitted, a second push beam istransmitted at a second time, t2, using the second subgroup of elements.This continues for the third and fourth subgroups. There is typically asmall duration between consecutive push beams. For example, there can bea 15 μs delay between consecutive push beams. In this short duration oftime, shear waves will propagate in soft tissue only about 0.45 mm,which is about 1.5 times the size of an individual transducer element inthe transducer. Thus, in general, the amount of shear wave propagationbetween successive push beams is negligible for all subgroups aftertransmitting all of the focused push beams.

It is noted that each push beam of the F-CUSE or M-CUSE techniques mayhave a different number of transmit elements and may be focused atdifferent depths. Additionally, each of the push events for the M-CUSEtechnique may include using more than one push beams. In the exampleshown in FIG. 8, push beams 1 (with less elements) and 2 (with moreelements) are simultaneously transmitted at time t1, followed by pushbeams 3 and 4 transmitted simultaneously at time t2. This combinationpush will produce strong shear waves at all depths and all lateralpositions for shear wave detection and processing. It is also noted thatpush beams in M-CUSE can have different push durations and can betransmitted in an arbitrary order (for example, in a different order1→4→3→2 compared to the order 1→2→3→4 illustrated in FIG. 7)

Similar to the original CUSE method, both F-CUSE and M-CUSE can generatecomb-patterned ultrasound push beams that induce a complicated shearwave field with interferences. Directional filtering described byManduca et al. in “Spatio-Temporal Directional Filtering for ImprovedInversion of MR Elastography Images,” Medical Image Analysis, 2003;7(4): 465-473, can thus be used to separate the shear waves intomultiple directions without interference so that robust shear waveestimates can be achieved at each imaging pixel within the FOV.

After comb-push transmission, a plane wave imaging mode can be used withall transducer elements delivering ultrasound to detect the propagatingshear waves. Alternatively, the detection scheme described above canalso be used.

The present invention has been described in terms of one or morepreferred embodiments, and it should be appreciated that manyequivalents, alternatives, variations, and modifications, aside fromthose expressly stated, are possible and within the scope of theinvention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for measuring a mechanicalproperty of an object using an ultrasound system having an ultrasoundtransducer that includes a plurality of transducer elements, the stepsof the method comprising: a) controlling the ultrasound transducer toenergize a plurality of subgroups of transducer elements to transmit acorresponding plurality of different focused ultrasound beams eachfocused at a different lateral location and each transmitted at adifferent time, thereby inducing multiple different shear waves in theobject; b) for each different lateral location, obtaining elastographydata representative of the multiple different shear waves bytransmitting at least one detection ultrasound beam into the object andreceiving echo signals in response thereto; c) generating processedelastography data by processing the obtained elastography data toseparate the multiple different shear waves into multiple differentdirectional components to reduce effects of interference between themultiple different shear waves; and d) calculating a mechanical propertyof the object using the processed elastography data.
 2. The method asrecited in claim 1, wherein at least some successively transmittedfocused ultrasound beams are generated in step a) by spatially adjacentsubgroups of transducer elements.
 3. The method as recited in claim 1,wherein at least some successively transmitted focused ultrasound beamsare generated in step a) by spatially overlapping subgroups oftransducer elements.
 4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein stepb) includes: i) dividing the transducer elements in the ultrasoundtransducer into a plurality of subgroups of transducer elements; ii)successively transmitting a set of ultrasound beams using a differentsubgroup of transducer elements, thereby successively transmittingultrasound to different regions in the object; iii) repeating step ii)at a pulse repetition frequency such that each set of ultrasound beamsis effectively repeated at the pulse repetition frequency.
 5. The methodas recited in claim 1, wherein step c) includes applying a directionalfilter to the elastography data.
 6. The method as recited in claim 1,wherein step a) includes transmitting at least some of the plurality ofdifferent focused ultrasound beams to focus at different depth locationsthan other ones of the plurality of different focused ultrasound beams.7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of differentfocused ultrasound beams are transmitted in sequential sets, whereineach set contains multiple simultaneously generated focused ultrasoundbeams that are focused at different locations.
 8. The method as recitedin claim 1, wherein calculating the mechanical property in step d)includes using at least one of a time-to-peak method, across-correlation method, a direct inversion method, and a frequencydependent analysis method.
 9. The method as recited in claim 1, whereinat least some of the plurality of focused ultrasound beams aretransmitted for a longer duration than others of the plurality offocused ultrasound beams.
 10. The method as recited in claim 1, whereinsome of the plurality of subgroups of transducer elements include moretransducer elements than others of the plurality of subgroups oftransducer elements.